Data Definition Questions

Security Related Questions

What can I do to protect my privacy
over the Internet?

Protect your username and password. It is your access key
to your Internet account. Do not reveal it to anyone.

Do not use passwords that incorporate your name, telephone
number, address or birthday or those of any close friend or
relative.

Do not leave your computer unattended while logged on to
the data collection Web site (if you do, your session will time
out after 30 minutes).

Clear the cache of your browser after visiting secure sites.
Browsers generally cache, or locally store, images of pages
you have downloaded to enhance performance. By clearing your
cache after visiting secure sites, you ensure no one else can
view any confidential information you may have transmitted.

CDE regularly monitors our internal systems. We keep up-to-date
with current security and encryption technology as it becomes
available.

Where is my information stored
when I enter my user name and password?

Your user name will be stored as a session variable
on your computer when you first enter your user name, and it will
be there while you are browsing through the Internet.

If you close
the instance of your browser or if you didn't use the browser
for more than an hour, it will be erased from the memory.

How do I know if I am on a secure
Web page?

A secure web page has the ‘https’ prefix to identify it as a secure web address, and many people are aware that the “s” has a special meaning when it comes to security. The “s” means that when accessing that particular web site, all web traffic between your web browser and the web site uses the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), a special protocol. If anyone manages to intercept the message, all they will see is gibberish.

In addition, a lock icon will be displayed in the bottom status bar of your browser. This indicates the data being transferred between your computer and the web site is encrypted.

Firewalls, what should I know
about them?

A firewall protects one or more computers with Internet connections
from access by external computers connected to the Internet.
In other words it controls access between CDE's computers and
outside Internet users.

A firewall is a network configuration, usually created by
hardware and software that forms a boundary between networked
computers within the firewall from those outside the firewall.
The computers within the firewall are a secure subnet with internal
access capabilities and shared resources not available to the
computers on the outside. Often, a single machine atop the firewall
is allowed access to both internal and external computers. Since
the computer atop the firewall is directly interacting with
the Internet, strict security measures against unwanted access
from external computers are required.

A firewall is commonly used to protect information such as
a network's e-mail and data files within a physical building
or organization site.

A firewall reduces the risk of intrusion by unauthorized people
from the Internet, however the same security measures may limit
or require special software for those inside the firewall who
wish to access information on the outside.

Connection Related Questions

Why is my connection slow
when browsing?

The most common cause is that too many people are trying
to connect to the same Website at the same time. Try accessing
the site at other times during the day, preferably early in
the morning or late at night, to see if this makes a difference.

Your browser may not be compatible with the CDE Web pages you are trying to view. Visit CDE's Minimum Web Browser Requirement page to make sure your browser meets the minimum requirements.

You may be having problems with your own dial-up connection.
Try other sites to confirm the quality of your dial-up link.

Your phone carrier may also be causing the slow connection.
The phone carrier may also be a factor for slow connection since
phone connection also affects dial-up connection.

Why am I getting a message: "Page cannot be displayed"?

The server to which you are trying to link is down (experiencing
network problems).

The server to which you are trying to link does not exist.
You may have misspelled or mistyped the server name.

I seem to be getting disconnected
about every 15 minutes. What's wrong?

Most likely, nothing is wrong. Most all ISP's use what is
called an idle time out. That means that if you are idle, or
not doing anything while you are on line, then after 15 minutes,
you will be automatically disconnected. As long as you are sending
data back and forth through your modem, the idle time out is
not in effect.

Remember too, that if you go to a site, and click on several
pages, they are cached or stored locally on your hard drive,
so if you start to go back through them, no data is being exchanged
and the idle time out will begin the counter again. Just being
on-line doesn't qualify as sending actual data through the modem.
Writing email doesn't send data through the modem either. You
actually have to click the save button to send or receive (error
messages) the data. Each time you send the data through the
modem, the time is reset to 0.

What is the meaning of "There
was no response. The server could be down or is not responding?"

A host error indicates that the site exists,
but when your browser tried to contact the site it could not be
reached. When you see the host error, any of the following could
be true:

The site is down or having trouble;

The site is too busy to accept any more connections;

The site is unreachable due to network problems in between
you and the site;
If you can connect to sites other than the data collection Web
site, the best advice is to try the Web site later.

Encryption Related Questions

What is data encryption and
why do we care?

Online banking and many other forms of Internet traffic rely upon secure communications. Since the Internet is a public network, sensitive information, such as credit card numbers and banking information, must be protected from prying eyes. One way to protect data is to encrypt it.

Without data encryption, secure communication over the Internet is impossible. When information is sent over the Internet, it travels on public lines, potentially accessible to anyone. This means that private and sensitive information can be intercepted and used by any hacker who knows how to do so.

Data encryption "scrambles" the information sent over the Internet so that only the computer it is intended for can read it. The hacker can still intercept your data file, but, because of the encryption, the information it contains cannot be read or used by him/her.

128-bit encryption provides a significantly greater amount of cryptographic protection than 40-bit encryption. Roughly speaking, 128-bit encryption is 309,485,009,821,345,068,724,781,056 times stronger than 40-bit encryption. 40-bit encryption is not considered "strong" security in the cryptographic community.

Accordingly, 128-bit data encryption has become the standard for securing sensitive information on the Internet.

Encryption is the process of transforming information (referred to as plaintext) using an algorithm (called a cipher) to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. Encryption prevents eavesdropping, tampering, and message forgery as well.

Why does CDE require 128-bit
encryption?

For security purposes, CDE requires that user have one of
the highest levels of browser encryption currently available
when accessing or sending sensitive information.

This strong encryption enables you to make secure transactions.

If the browser supports the higher the level of encryption,
it is more difficult for an outside party to break the communication
code.